Music, too. I saw Ben Folds in Durham the other night (fantastic show) and he mentioned that in "Not the Same," the line "Robert Sledge's party" is a lie. It was fellow BFF bandmate Darren Jessee's party, but he thought Sledge fit the meter better.
I can never trust a source again once I find out they've been lying about something they present as the truth, regardless of whether it's their "emotional truth." I also don't understand why a comedian needs to make up stories to get a laugh when everyday life is so damn funny. (Improv is a whole different thing, OBV.)
Funny, I never thought about comedy being true until you brought it up in this column. I always thought humorists were people who saw funny things and made up stories to make them funnier.
Comedians have writers. Are writers held to the truth standard? We live in a time when truth defenders are essential, that's for sure. Holding comedians to that standard may be a little over the top.
The article on the South Carolina teacher makes me so very angry. I retired to this state in 2012 thinking i could live here. Now we are moving out. Not sure where. The education system perpetuates
teaching a curriucum that supports racist white people continuing to never change. The state wants to ensure that racism will grow and flourish here.
. This wont change and those teachers like the one in the story deserve a medal of courage for trying. I teaching English to adult immigrants here in Greenville. They experience the South Carolina version of cruelty every day.
Oh that's a tough one, Tommy. I most definitely hew to the "if it's non fiction, it needs to be non fiction" but is comedy fiction or non fiction? I think if you tell the story as a story and claim it happened to you, it should be true. There are ways to tell a joke that let your audience know you are embellishing, inflating, etc. ... the explanation that it's your "emotional truth"? No. That isn't one of the ways.
Never thought about comedy being true or not but I don't follow any comedian so somewhat handicapped here. Given the skits mentioned and seen on YouTube, agree if the comedian presents the story as 'happened to me' then we believe that story to be true. But the definition of 'truth' has taken a beating lately, in comedy too
If someone says “this happened to me”, I expect the story to be basically true. But I accept that it may be exaggerated or embellished, especially in a comedy act.
The worst part to me about the Minhaj lies is that it makes harder for the next person who really is a victim of racism to be believed. It sure seems like he's not being honest about his motives. All comedians lie and embellish for comedic effect, but you can't put yourself in someone else's hate crime. And you certainly shouldn't be so reckless as to use the names of real people and falsely accuse them of such things. Did he he not expect them to correct the record? Did he not expect someone to check into the anthrax threat? That's incredibly easy to verify. He may as well said somebody dropped a bomb on his house.
I get your point - I saw Hasan Minhaj in Winston-Salem recently prepping for his upcoming special and really enjoyed it- he had a joke about an interaction he had with his ex-girlfriend from high-school which I didn't find very believable, but funny nonetheless. I don't really fully believe him during the rest of the act either. Still, I guess the subject matter is important in these cases of comedians lying during bits?
The Minhaj thing is made worse by his explanation/defence
No way he can believe what he’s saying is a reasonable response
Music, too. I saw Ben Folds in Durham the other night (fantastic show) and he mentioned that in "Not the Same," the line "Robert Sledge's party" is a lie. It was fellow BFF bandmate Darren Jessee's party, but he thought Sledge fit the meter better.
I think that if you claim something happened happened to you, it should have happened to you, period.
I can never trust a source again once I find out they've been lying about something they present as the truth, regardless of whether it's their "emotional truth." I also don't understand why a comedian needs to make up stories to get a laugh when everyday life is so damn funny. (Improv is a whole different thing, OBV.)
Funny, I never thought about comedy being true until you brought it up in this column. I always thought humorists were people who saw funny things and made up stories to make them funnier.
Comedians have writers. Are writers held to the truth standard? We live in a time when truth defenders are essential, that's for sure. Holding comedians to that standard may be a little over the top.
The article on the South Carolina teacher makes me so very angry. I retired to this state in 2012 thinking i could live here. Now we are moving out. Not sure where. The education system perpetuates
teaching a curriucum that supports racist white people continuing to never change. The state wants to ensure that racism will grow and flourish here.
. This wont change and those teachers like the one in the story deserve a medal of courage for trying. I teaching English to adult immigrants here in Greenville. They experience the South Carolina version of cruelty every day.
This is a hateful state full of ignorance
Oh that's a tough one, Tommy. I most definitely hew to the "if it's non fiction, it needs to be non fiction" but is comedy fiction or non fiction? I think if you tell the story as a story and claim it happened to you, it should be true. There are ways to tell a joke that let your audience know you are embellishing, inflating, etc. ... the explanation that it's your "emotional truth"? No. That isn't one of the ways.
Never thought about comedy being true or not but I don't follow any comedian so somewhat handicapped here. Given the skits mentioned and seen on YouTube, agree if the comedian presents the story as 'happened to me' then we believe that story to be true. But the definition of 'truth' has taken a beating lately, in comedy too
If someone says “this happened to me”, I expect the story to be basically true. But I accept that it may be exaggerated or embellished, especially in a comedy act.
The worst part to me about the Minhaj lies is that it makes harder for the next person who really is a victim of racism to be believed. It sure seems like he's not being honest about his motives. All comedians lie and embellish for comedic effect, but you can't put yourself in someone else's hate crime. And you certainly shouldn't be so reckless as to use the names of real people and falsely accuse them of such things. Did he he not expect them to correct the record? Did he not expect someone to check into the anthrax threat? That's incredibly easy to verify. He may as well said somebody dropped a bomb on his house.
I get your point - I saw Hasan Minhaj in Winston-Salem recently prepping for his upcoming special and really enjoyed it- he had a joke about an interaction he had with his ex-girlfriend from high-school which I didn't find very believable, but funny nonetheless. I don't really fully believe him during the rest of the act either. Still, I guess the subject matter is important in these cases of comedians lying during bits?